Canadian Professor Fired for Defending Israel in Social Media Post After Oct. 7 Attacks

A non-Jewish Canadian professor claims his university fired him for defending Israel in a social media post as antisemitism surged across Canada after Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.

Paul Finlayson told Fox News Digital he lost his job at Canada's University of Guelph-Humber after posting online about the massacre and kidnapping of Israelis and foreigners, including Americans and Canadians.

In November 2023, Finlayson replied on LinkedIn to an overseas educator he said was calling for Israel's eradication. The National Post quoted his response in a December 2023 article, though the original post and comments were later deleted.

"If you say ‘from the River to the Sea’, you’re a Nazi," Finlayson wrote. "I’m not neutral. I stand with Israel. I stand against antisemites who want nothing but dead Jews: who take millions from their education and health care budgets and spend it on making war…You stand with Palestine means you stand with Hitler. You don’t want peace, you want dead Jews…They murdered 1,400 innocents and took 250 hostages and the people celebrated rapist monsters as heroes."

Since the post, Finlayson said he endured a targeted campaign that damaged his professional standing and job prospects. Students found the reply before the thread vanished, sparking outcry. On Nov. 27, while meeting a student in his office, an administrator waited outside and handed him a suspension letter.

The letter, which Finlayson provided, cited "inappropriate online comments" and placed him on leave pending investigation. It barred him from contacting departmental staff, students, or other university members.

Finlayson said students liked him and ranked him highly among business department faculty. He had developed courses and written textbooks. "My trial has been by defamation, and it continues by defamation," he said of the Kafkaesque ordeal.

His union, OPSEU Local 562, refused to represent him. The union did not respond to Fox News Digital.

The university fired Finlayson in July 2025. His termination letter stated an investigator found his conduct violated the Ontario Human Rights Code and Humber’s Human Rights and Harassment Policy, including reprisal.

Humber's policy says anyone attempting reprisal against complainants may face discipline. It also supports equal treatment without discrimination, including on grounds of antisemitism.

University of Guelph-Humber did not answer Fox News Digital's questions about the case or whether anti-Israel posts by its students and a professor breach the policy.

The University of Guelph's "UofGforPalestine" Instagram page, run by students, staff, and faculty in solidarity with Palestine, has shared Hamas' inverted red triangle symbol. Canada lists Hamas as a terror group.

In November 2024, the page posted photos of a guillotine on a Guelph path with red-painted heads of Canadian, American, and Israeli leaders. The anonymous submission's message read: "Death to empire, death to colonialism and imperialism, death to the war machine."

A University of Guelph-Humber professor Finlayson believes filed the complaint has called Israel a "terrorist state" on LinkedIn and said the world "cannot have both" peace and Israel. The professor did not respond to Fox News Digital.

Finlayson lost his job, but at York University, three staffers charged in November 2023 with hate-motivated mischief kept or regained positions. They were among 11 people who plastered a bookstore with photos accusing a Jewish CEO of genocide and splashed it with red paint, per the National Post.

Initially suspended, at least two have current York profiles. One professor taught in the Winter 2026 semester. York University did not comment.